


Of Mortality and Androids

by Melime



Category: Star Trek: The Next Generation (Movies)
Genre: Canonical Character Death, Gen, Past Character Death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-25
Updated: 2021-02-25
Packaged: 2021-03-15 17:56:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 600
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29687760
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Melime/pseuds/Melime
Summary: Years after Data's death, Geordi still suffers with the loss of his best friend.
Relationships: Data & Geordi La Forge
Comments: 4
Kudos: 5
Collections: Froday Flash Fiction Fandom Battle





	Of Mortality and Androids

**Author's Note:**

  * Translation into Português brasileiro available: [Sobre Mortalidade e Androides](https://archiveofourown.org/works/29687784) by [Melime GreenLeaf (Melime)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Melime/pseuds/Melime%20GreenLeaf)



> Written for FFFC's 10 years fandom battle challenge

Sometimes, Geordi still forgot.

He would see something amazing at work, or have an idea that would change lives or increase the ship’s efficiency… and sometimes, it was just that something funny happened to him and he had to share it.

It could happen three times on the same day, or months apart, and anything in between. It would just happen, with no reason or logic to it. He would just be taken by an urge to share something that happened in his life with his best friend.

Most times, he would remember just as fast as he had forgotten it, the thought shut down before it would complete. In others, the worst ones, the more painful ones, he would be midway to writing a letter by the time he realized there was no one to deliver it to.

It wasn’t fair. Geordi always assumed, everyone always assumed, that Data would outlive them all. There was no reason for his components to fail, at least none so essential that it couldn’t be easily replaced. The positronic brain, Soong’s pride and joy, was made to last.

Data had no expiration date, he didn’t age, most of his components could be fixed or replaced, and he was far more resistant than any humanoid they had ever encountered. With all of that, it was easy to forget that he wasn’t immortal after all.

Geordi wondered if Data knew, before the moment he decided to sacrifice himself, that his life would one day end. Maybe losing Lal taught him that, it was harder to believe Data’s assertions that he couldn’t feel after seeing the effect of his daughter’s death on him. She was forced to understand her mortally far too early, and Data had her memories, so perhaps he understood as well that people, even created people, couldn’t live forever.

The worst reminder that his best friend was gone forever came around his birthday, usually starting in the first days of February and lasting a little past the date. How ironic was it that they were both born in the same year, but Geordi was fast approaching fifty, and Data only lived until forty-four. Every year that passed was a reminder that he was now older than Data would ever be.

Even so, every year grieving was a little easier. The moments he forgot he would never see Data again became rarer, although years later they still haven’t completely gone away. Even as the pain of that loss became duller with age, he hoped it would never completely disappear. In a way, that pain reminded him that Data had been real, not a thing that could be replaced, but a person whose loss would be felt for years to come, perhaps for all his own life.

It was strange to think that in a little over hundred years no one who knew Data would still be alive, and then he would only be remembered as a milestone of technological development. Data couldn’t even live long enough to accomplish his dream of one day seeing life forms like him being granted the same rights as other sentient beings, and without him to push advancements forward by being a constant reminder to the Federation that a synthetic life form could be one of the best officers Starfleet ever had, it seemed like his dream may never come to pass. Still, Geordi would do whatever he could to make that dream real, both in honor of his friend, and because he knew better than anyone that synthetic person could be just as real as a biological one.


End file.
